


10/28

by oxen_fr33



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Sean's Big Brother Intuition Tells Him Something's Not Right AU, big episode one of lis2 spoilers, daniel has time power au, sons ;;
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-18 21:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16127129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxen_fr33/pseuds/oxen_fr33
Summary: 10/28/16: Sean didn’t get déjà vu often, but today he did





	10/28

Sean didn’t get déjà vu often, but today he did. It started this morning when he woke up for school. He wasn’t even there yet, and it already felt like hell. As usual, the familiar pit of dread from the mere thought of sitting through seven hours of pain settled in his stomach, his brain running through the three quizzes that all just happened to fall on the same day. (It won’t be so bad, he thought to himself. Lyla’s going to be back today, and she’s probably not contagious with the flu anymore.) However, after school, he was going to some big Halloween bash where he might see the girl he liked, where they might flirt a little, and that kind of made up for the impending bad day. Kind of. He swung his legs over the side of his bed and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth and take a shower, which was where the first case of déjà vu occurred.

Daniel’s music blared from behind the bathroom door. He brushed his teeth to one song everyday to ensure that he had brushed enough. Sean sighed and leaned against the wall, waiting his turn like the patient big brother he was, folding his arms against his chest. For some reason, this scene specifically struck Sean as oddly familiar, but he passed it off as his brain taking a long time to wake up. Daniel did this daily, after all. Sean waited for the final notes of whatever this song was and Daniel to spit into the sink. Then he opened the door.

“You done?”  
Daniel whirled around to face Sean, his eyes round with surprise. He still had toothpaste around his mouth. “Oh, hi! And yeah. Just finished.” The small boy beamed and gave Sean an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Sean rolled his eyes and wished that he too had that kind of optimism this early in the morning. “Neat.” Just as Daniel pushed past him to leave, Sean added, “Oh, by the way, that song slams.”

Daniel stopped. “Really? I knew you’d think so! By the way, I found your old iPod the other day and listened to it! My favorites are Fergalicious, that one about closing the door—”

“Good-bye, Daniel!” Sean said sternly, closing the door behind his brother. Another feeling of déjà vu encased him. Hadn’t Daniel told him that he found his iPod yesterday? Or the day before? His eyes landed on the kitchen sink, where the ancient device stared back at him. Sean had an iPhone now, not much use for the music player. Maybe Daniel would want it as a hand-me-down. Sean sighed and listened to it for old times’ sake while he showered and brushed his teeth. The experience was nostalgic. 

Strange feelings of having-done-this-before plagued Sean all day until he thought that he was dreaming. He didn’t dare bring this up to Lyla, who he trusted the most. People had déjà vu often, right? Sean had just lost himself in the never-ending loop of go-to-school-go-to-bed-repeat that had been his life for the past twelve years. It was normal—a given, really. Nothing really made today distinct from yesterday. The day proceeded as clockwork, everything happening at the time when he expected it to. 

By the time Sean returned from school, Daniel was already home, eager to play. Déjà vu had given Sean a headache at this point, a low murmuring in the back of his brain warning him that something was wrong. Sean blamed the whispers on nerves about the party, about life really, and continued with his day. Sean needed to pack supplies for the party and then call Lyla. Sean told his little brother that he would look at his gigantic Minecraft city later and went to the garage to go grab blankets, where he was promptly stopped by his father.

This exchange went better than Sean had hoped. His father hadn’t interrogated him too much about the party, which was a godsend since Sean was technically still grounded in the first place. A few words of trust, forty bucks, and a greasy hug from the old man. Sean looked over his shoulder at his dad who had returned to working underneath the rusty truck that would one day become Sean’s. A pit of dread formed in his stomach, but he didn’t know why. He couldn’t bring himself to say the word “bye.”

That evening, a gunshot rang out. It echoed in Sean’s ears. If he wasn’t already on the ground, he would have fallen over. He saw his father fall over, like a limp doll. It happened way too fast for Sean to process. Next to him, Daniel gave out a pained cry, tears streaming down his cheeks. Sean didn’t even realize that he was crying, that he was mumbling incoherently to himself under his breath, empty reassurances that things would be okay, that things would be fine, and that he would wake up, this all having been a terrible, terrible dream. Even the chilly autumn winds had died down; the world itself had stopped. Sean, acutely remembering the presence of his little brother, clapped a dirty, bloody hand over his eyes, so he didn’t have to look anymore. The ringing in Sean’s ears wouldn’t stop. With startling clarity, Sean recounted that he had seen this event again and again and again. Déjà vu… Did he know this would happen?

Then he felt it. A sudden breeze and then everything stopped. Even Daniel’s sobs faded into the background, Sean’s own vision fading to black. It was a shift, and everything that made Sean who he was being pulled apart and then put back together piece by piece. His father’s bullet wounds closed, the “zombie blood” spilling reversed back into the bottle, Sean and Lyla walking backwards onto a school bus, the evening turning to afternoon to morning. It all went dark, like someone blowing out a candle.

Sean didn’t get déjà vu often, but today he did. It started this morning when he woke up for school. He wasn’t even there yet, and it already felt like hell.

**Author's Note:**

> I have to wake up really early for a nine-hour marching band practice, but the diaz bros are so important. i'm so tired.  
> some kagerou daze level of time loop shenanigans  
> thank you for reading


End file.
